Endings Beginnings and Things In Between
by Dinogeek
Summary: After the Battle of Five Armies, a mysterious force takes mercy on the young heirs of Durin and sends them far into the world's future for a second chance at life. But how will they adapt to this whole new world- and more importantly, what else may have followed them in? AU (obviously); under revision.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I decided to dive headfirst into the Hobbit fandom so here's my oficial contribution to the 'Fili and Kili are too effing cute to die' movement. XD I promise that the following chapters will be both longer and less saddening, but I decided to start out with Thorin getting to sort of make peace with his nephews' deaths before he dies himself. The next chapter will be coming soon and will involve Kili and a German Shepherd, and in the meantime I have a love of reviews and will respond to them. :) Leastways, enjoy! ^-^**

* * *

Thorin Oakenshield could hear birds in the background, birds returning to the mountain that he had fought so long and hard for- fought himself for, even. Now, though, he would only return to the Lonely Mountain to be laid within it. He knew he was dying, he'd known it from the very second the battle began. A feeling, deep in his heart, that wouldn't leave him. Thorin had gone into the battle knowing that he would not walk away. So no grief for himself tore at his heart while he waited for Gandalf to find the halfling, so that he could try and say how desperately sorry he was before his time came.

So no, while regret he had aplenty, there was no grief in him- not for himself, he should have amended. There was grief more than enough for his two nephews. They had already fallen to death, Gandalf had told him of it with a look on his face that made the wizard seem like he were as old as Arda itself. It was all Thorin could do not to scream with pain when he'd heard the news. This was never supposed to happen; none of this was ever supposed to happen.

His nephews' faces flashed through his mind with painful clarity- Kili's wicked smile as he pulled a successful prank and the way Fili would watch and just roll his eyes like the loving and long-suffering brother he was- and he closed his eyes tightly, wishing that he could banish the images from his head. _Dead because of you, _his mind whispered to him coldly. _Because of your greed and stupidity. Because you were a foolish old man who couldn't protect what mattered most while you were busy with what mattered least_. He knew now with a clarity that only dying could bring that all of the gold in Erebor and the rest of the world would never again matter. They never had.

What really mattered would soon be buried next to him.

It seemed that Gandalf had read his mind because before he left to find Bilbo he leaned down and gripped Thorin's shoulder with a hand like a vice. "Look at me, Thorin Oakenshield," he commanded, waiting until the king obeyed to continue. "Their deaths were not your fault, nor will they ever be. They fought and died with true honor, and you should be proud of them. As they would be of you." He swept out of the tent to go and find the hobbit so that Thorin could make his last apology and die with some semblance of peace.

It was only a few more seconds before the very nervous hobbit came into the tent, making to shut the flap behind him, but Thorin stopped him. "Leave it," he requested with quiet forcefulness. "I wish to see the sun and hear the birds. I wish to see life before I go to death." Bilbo nodded wordlessly, trying and failing not to let his sadness show. Thorin said his farewell to the child of the kindly West and some healing came to his heart to be forgiven for his wrongs. But still his nephews' images danced in front of him, the two play-wrestling with one another as they were so wont to do. Alone in the tent, Thorin let the tears fall from his eyes.

_Do not mourn_, a soft voice said in his head. _Mercy will be had upon them, Thorin Oakenshield_. The world phased out and changed, showing his nephews again, alive and well in a place he could not even begin to recognize with people- humans- that he'd never seen before. Tears sprang to his eyes once again but this time there was no sadness.

"This... this is the future?" he asked hesitantly. He could almost feel the voice smiling at him.

_It shall be, Thorin_, it responded. _They will be given new life. Go now in peace to the halls, where your ancestors await you. Let grief trouble your heart no more_.

When Gandalf the Grey returned to the tent, he found Thorin lying dead on the bed, with a contented smile on his face.

The dwarves of Erebor buried their king two days later, when the Halls had been improved enough entomb him respectably. Fili and Kili they laid to his right and left, and spread their weapons down at their feet. The dawarves' laments hung on the air like a mist as the Elvenking laid Thorin's sword on his grave. Then the graves were shut, the rock was sealed, and the last of the line of Durin began their long sleep under the ground.

In the darkness of the tombs, a light began to glow.

And in the light, the two youngest heirs of Durin began to vanish.


	2. Schertz, shorts, and overshirts

**A/N: So yeah this has been edited from its original, less than stellar, form and hopefully it'll only be an improvement *crosses fingers*. I somehow managed to lose the doc I had all this written on (seriously- I lost the entire document) so I've decided to just start from scratch with this, which TBH can only be an improvement. O-o The edited version of the next chapter should be up later today, and after that it'll be tally-ho and on with the show. Enjoy! ^-^**

* * *

Kili yawned widely and blinked his eyes open, flinching as bolts of sunlight struck him right in the pupils. He felt like he had a hangover of epic proportions but he knew it wasn't drinking that had led to this. He remembered the battle- arrows and fire and swords and death- _his death_. He had died, hadn't he? He could still remember it, a pain in his gut followed by cold followed by darkness. He sat bolt upright, only to flop over backwards as his head spun. It was hot, so hot his eyes were watering. Was he in Harad or someplace like that?

He pushed his hair out of his eyes, noticing idly that he was still wearing the clothing he'd fought in, bloodstains and all. It was the dwarven way to bury their dead just as they'd fallen in battle. The clip was still in his hair but he was considering taking it out and using it to hold _all_ of his hair back. Already he could feel sweat trickling down the back of his neck and he stumbled over to the only shade available, a large tree sitting by the side of the path.

He plonked down underneath the branches gracelessly (hey, he's just _died_, he figured he was entitled to a little exhaustion) and took stock of his surroundings. All appeared to be well, but Kili was a warrior at heart and he was always on the lookout for trouble. He noticed that the path he had woken up on was well laid, neatly packed dirt with a drainage ditch to either side. Kili tugged his collar back and forth, really wishing that he could have been buried in something less stifling.

A crude fence blocked the path off from the surrounding pastures, threaded metal with spikes sticking off of it at regular intervals. He examined it with a dwarf's eye and couldn't help but think that such a fence would be very useful in Erebor. It was old but it stood strong, too strong for him to break. He repeated the tugging motion on his collar and, even as tired as he was, he whooped when he saw a house in the distance, only a few minutes' walk away- if only he could get around this damned fence.

Eventually, after sacrificing a bit of skin on one of his palms, he figured out that he could climb over the top with a little effort and a bit more balance. He gave himself a satisfied smile and made a beeline for the house across the field. He just hoped there was somebody there who could give him some water.

* * *

Until she woke up, Katie was perfectly unaware that she had been asleep. It was nearing a hundred degrees in the sun, and it was only slightly better in the shade and she was all alone for the rest of the week. So she had gone out onto the porch to catch the breeze and propped the standing fan in the doorway and before she knew it she was out like a light. That was, until General sat up on his back legs and began to growl, jolting her awake to one of the strangest sights she had ever seen.

Kili had finally tromped all the way across the field, wondering who in their right minds would voluntarily live in this sort of heat and wishing that he could just strip down to his birthday suit and jump into a pond somewhere. He neared the house and suddenly he realized, much to his chagrin, that there was a woman sleeping on the front porch- a woman wearing a pair of trousers much shorter than what would be considered acceptable in Erebor. He blushed, though he had to admit that not all of his blush was due to embarrassment.

There was a large black and brown dog lazing away next to the woman, eyeing him suspiciously as he approached. He stopped briefly, not wanting to awaken the woman- or be targeted by the dog- but it was too late to avoid notice. The dog sat up on its haunches, growling at the dwarf and baring a very sharp set of teeth. The woman sat upright, taking in Kili's disheveled appearance and obvious confusion, not to mention the fact that he was visually close to suffering from heat exhaustion, and settled a hand on the dog's back.

"Easy, General, there's a good boy." She thumped it on the back a few times and the dog settled back onto its front paws, never taking its eyes off the nervous dwarf prince. The woman jumped to her feet and launched off the wooden steps. "You know those are some nice clothes but you shouldn't be out in this with 'em on. You'll get heat stroke."

"I, uh... yes, I do feel rather unwell," was all Kili could manage amidst his confusion. The woman grabbed his arm, alarmed at the heat coming off of the dwarf, and pulled him bodily into the shade of the porch.

"Here, you get some of that stuff off and I'll get you some water." Katie hurried into the house, trying to wrap her head around why a- rather short, truth be told- stranger had suddenly turned up this far from anywhere dressed in clothing that, while she would admit was very pretty, was completely ridiculous to be wearing in south Texas in the middle of summer. She grabbed a few ice packs from the rusting old freezer and hurried back out to the porch where the stranger sat, giving General an amusingly wary side-eye. She chuckled quietly.

"General doesn't bite so long as you don't make him," she told the stranger with a wink. She grabbed a well chewed cow bone and threw it out into the field, and the Shepherd chased after it without hesitation. She suppressed a sigh as she realized that the stranger had yet to remove any of his heavy garments; either he was more out of it than he seemed to be or he was the most ridiculously shy person alive. "C'mon, dude, I don't bite either. Get that stuff off before you collapse, you're already overheating." Now she knew that it was shyness because a distinct blush rose to his face at her words; she barely held in a giggle, wondering what had come over her.

"I do not believe... that would be appropriate, my lady," Kili muttered, trying his hardest not to blush. He was utterly mortified at the thought of taking off his _anything_ in front of a lady he'd never met before, let alone going down to his skivvies- even though it was obvious that dress here was more, ah, _relaxed_ than it was among the dwarves. Katie rolled her eyes; modesty was all well and good but there reached a point where one had to sacrifice modesty to prudence.

"Look, bud, don't make me wait til you pass out to strip you anyways. 'Cause I will." He searched her face for some evidence that she was joking and found none. Kili was still somewhat mortified but he realized that, well, the woman had a point. There was a funny little spinning motion going on all around him and he felt like he was sitting on top of a campfire. He shrugged off his overshirt and boots and a few more articles until he was (just as he'd feared) down to naught but his unders. For her part, Katie kept her eyes averted at his obvious discomfort, handing him the ice pack.

"Lay back and put this on your head. You should be alright in a few minutes. You from out of town?" She'd noticed his accent earlier and she knew no one from Texas would ever dress like that outside of December, so it wasn't so much a question as a means of making noise to avoid awkward silence.

"What town is this?" Kili asked, peering up at the oddly dressed woman. He genuinely had no idea where he was or how he was even there- dead people did not usually wake up again.

"A little ways outside of Schertz, Texas," she responded, noting the blank look on his face. Him not having heard of Schertz was understandable (who _had_ that didn't live there?) but no matter where you went in the world most everybody had heard of Texas. "Where are you from?" She watched General playing with his bone idly while she waited for the visitor to answer, taking a drink from her glass of water.

"Erebor." She just about choked on her drink.


	3. Kids and confusion and very bad maps

**A/N: Wherein Fili tries to remember the location of the Kingdom of San Antonio. As promised, here is the revision of chapter three, and looking back on the old version WOW I must have been drunk as a skunk or something. I found like a dozen grammatical errors and a couple gaping plot holes. Then again I did originally write it on my 21st birthday. XD Ideally I'll have chapter four up as soon as possible now that I've got all my scheisse together. ^-^**

* * *

Fili had an easier time with his reawakening than his little brother, though he was no less confused when it happened. He too remembered the cold feeling that had crept over him relentlessly as the knife thrust into his back, until his eyes slid shut for what he had known would be the last time. He could still remember the darkness taking him.

A slight but cool breeze was the first thing that hit him, followed by the gentle sound of birds chirping in the near distance. Was he in the afterlife? Well, there was only one way to tell- he'd just have to open his eyes and find out.

There were tree branches arcing above him and dirt below his head; the breeze did little to stamp down the stifling heat pressing against him. He looked around, saw no one, and shrugged off his overshirt, rolling up his sleeves. By all appearances he'd woken up in the middle of a forest, but it was nowhere near Erebor- as a matter of fact it was nothing like any forest he'd ever seen before. Tall trees he couldn't identify lined the narrow path, interspersed with evergreens that lay thick on the ground. He forced himself upright and stumbled over to one of them, sinking into the shade with a contented sigh.

Now that he was in the shade it became easier to think, though the subject was still just as confusing. He was dead. There was no getting around that. He had died at the Battle of Five Armies. So why was he here on some forest path he didn't recognize and not in the afterlife? He heard a snuffling sound behind him and twisted around to see a raggedy looking dog staring at him, sniffing his hair. He pushed aside his confused thoughts for a moment and gave the animal a smile, scratching it behind the ears.

A moment later two young human boys came hurtling up the trail, racing one another to the top. "I beat you, Ethan!" the smaller one announced proudly as he hit the highest point just a second before his brother.

"Alright, alright, don't get braggy," Ethan retorted, leaning on his knees and catching his breath. The dog trotted over to them with an enthusiastic bark and the two finally noticed Fili sitting under the tree, smiling at their antics. "Oh, hello," the older boy told him. "I hope Zip wasn't bothering you." He thumped the dog's side and Fili gave him a friendly smile.

"Not at all. Um, this will sound like an odd question, but could you tell me where I am right now?" He genuinely didn't know; courtesy of Balin, he'd seen plenty of maps of Arda, but they'd never been his strong point and he certainly couldn't recall having seen any forests in the southern parts- the only places that got this hot. The two boys shared a confused look but then they gave matching shrugs and turned back to face him.

"San Antonio," the littler one replied. At Fili's blank look, he added, "Texas… _America._" Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Well I think he knows _that_, Jake. He's here after all."

"Actually, I didn't," Fili confessed, truly baffled. He'd never heard of this kingdom before, nor seen it on any map. His confusion must have shown on his face because the two boys gave one another odd looks. Clearly this was a land he was supposed to have heard on before. And yet... "What year is it?"

"2014," Ethan replied slowly. Fili tried to maintain his composure but he couldn't stop his jaw from lowering just a little bit. Ethan was looking at him suspiciously now, shifting to stand in front of his brother, and Fili braced himself for questions he had no more of an answer to than they did.

"What year did you come from?" Of all the questions he'd been expecting, that wasn't the first one he'd thought of. All the same, he gave his answer.

"2941 of the Third Age." Jake was gaping at him around his brother's back but Ethan gave the dwarf a critical look, like he was trying to confirm a suspicion. The dwarf sat still as the child looked over his hair and clothes before pursing his lips.

"You being serious or just messin' around?" Fili gave a humorless snort.

"I am being most serious, my friend." Ethan eyed him for a few more seconds before he nodded decisively, holding out his hand to help Fili to his feet.

"You need to come talk to our dad."

* * *

Fili trailed behind the two boys as Zip sniffed the ground, seeming confused. He ran up, took a great big whiff of Fili's trousers, and then followed his scent back to the tree and from there back to the patch of trail he'd found himself on when he first opened his eyes. Then the dog sniffed all of the dirt around it, but whined when he found nothing.

"It's like he thinks you came outta nowhere," Ethan remarked, frowning at the spot.

"But you can't do that," Jake piped up, giving his brother a look of childish confusion. "Unless you can teleport!" He looked at Fili with amazement and the dwarf chuckled.

"No, I am afraid not. I don't actually know what that word means but I am as unsure as you of how I came to be here." _Except for one aspect of it_, he finished in his head. He wasn't about to tell the two boys what had happened before. The blood and screams of the battlefield filled his mind as he remembered taking wounds, too many to live. One in particular. And yet when he awoke it was not the afterlife but in this strange land, and he wondered why. Why him? So many others had died. Why was he sent out of his time?

One thing he did know was that he had woken alone. It was the first time since his childhood that Kili had not been by his side. Fili only hoped that meant that Kili had lived, because he couldn't bear it in his heart to think that his little brother had fallen. Even so, the thought of being so alone tore at his heart. He wasn't complete without his brother. He was drawn from his dark thoughts as he shifted and the kids caught sight of the blood dried on his clothing.

"Are you hurt?" Ethan asked. "You're bleeding all over the place!" Fili was briefly confused until he realized that they were referring to his burial clothes, the same ones he'd fought in- blood stains and all. But evidently whatever had sent him here had healed him first, for when he checked there was not a scratch to be found anywhere on him.

"I'm not injured," he replied, trying- and failing- not to sound as baffled as they were. "This is just what I was-" He stopped abruptly, not wanting to say 'buried in' for fear of how they would react. Already he was claiming to be from some different realm and age, it would only make it worse to claim that he'd died first.

"What you were what?" Jake asked. The boys gave him their best dead fish imitations before a shout rang out from behind them.

"Jake! Ethan! You're late for lunch."

"Sorry dad, we met a friend," Ethan hollered back. Fili pursed his lips, trying to figure out what 'dad' meant. He presumed that it meant father since it was so close to _adad_ but it never hurt to be sure.

"That means father, yes?" he asked. The boys nodded.

"C'mon, we'll introduce you," Ethan told him, tugging him towards a large clearing. "He'll wanna hear what you have to say."

* * *

**Edited 02/05/14**


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